Studi Strategici ed Intelligence… for dummies

Più potere alla Germania…

"The balance of power between the Franco-German pair that have dominated EU policymaking has shifted across the Rhine. The euro-zone debt crisis, during which all eyes have been on Germany, exposes this cruelly.

The main factor behind this shift is economic. Only last year France’s economy was doing better in the recession than Germany’s (…). An export-led surge in Germany has pushed GDP growth to 3.7%, against only 1.6% in France and a euro-zone average of 1.7%. Germany is reaping the benefits of years of wage moderation and labour-market reforms that improved its competitiveness.

It would be a mistake to overstate the shift. France remains Germany’s biggest trading partner. It has a permanent United Nations Security Council seat and a robust defence capability, as well as ties to Africa and the Arab world that make its voice count. It still has a strong presence in Brussels. But, partly because of its enlargement to the east, the EU is now centred more on Germany than on France.

“For France, it is very difficult to accept,” says one French minister. “We have a tendency sometimes to treat Germany as if it should just accept our ideas, because that’s what France does. But that is over.” This means that French officials have to work out new ways of retaining their influence in Europe."